Nutty Fluffies

A fine physics game that's as nutty as the name suggests.

Goodness knows we had a thorough look for a story in Nutty Fluffies but we couldn't find one. There are cut-scenes sure, but nothing that really sets up the adventure ahead. Fortunately it doesn't really matter, as this adventure ultimately amounts to steering a collection of cartoon animals around a series of rollercoaster tracks. Such things speak for themselves in gaming.

Your task here is a simple one and packed with the sort of physics-based gameplay you'd expect from the developer of the Trials series, not to mention the immensely popular mobile game MotoHeroz. Across a series of swooping rollercoaster tracks, you need to guide a trainload of animals from the start to the finishing line. A forward swipe of the screen adds speed, while a backwards swipe puts the brakes on a little bit. Pretty simple you'd think, and at first it is.

Things get much more interesting though, as you soon run into some seriously perilous tracks. A steep incline requires some furious swiping, but once you crest the hill you need to frantically re-balance things with rear swipes so that the train doesn't tumble end over end, flinging those poor creatures towards a very unfortunate demise in the process.

Apart from delicate finger-work, you're also attempting to gather as many of the hearts that are spread around each level as possible. Many of these hang in the air, so you'll want to do a little care-free flying before adjusting the train to land gently. The more hearts you gather, the higher your performance meter rises at the end of a level. The higher this goes, the more coins you earn, and you're going to need plenty of these to unlock new levels.

There's an interesting twist to those coins too. Before starting each level, you can gamble some of them by adding new creatures to the ever-growing train. The more bonus hearts a passenger rewards you with for succeeding at a run, the more coins you'll have to risk by placing them in the train. Fail a level repeatedly and you can very quickly run out of currency. It's a great way of adding risk and longevity to the game.

It'll more than likely take you a fair bit of grinding coins to open up all of the content Nutty Fluffies has to offer, but it's also one of those games you'll have so much fun playing that it will never feel like work. It's no doubt a daft game, and apart from some occasional new twists such as gusts of steam that propel you faster, there's a lot of repetition in the experience. Is there a dollar's worth of fun in the game though? Absolutely.